Sunday, June 17, 2007

Environment - Toxic Algae in China

Photo: National Research Council of Canada

Great googly-moogly. Things are bad indeed, between the coastal pollution near Shenzhen and algal bloom off Hongkong that I blogged recently, and now the algal invasion in two lakes. China, which has 25 per cent of the world's population, has only 7 per cent of its water. The coastal algal bloom is nontoxic, although Chinese authorities have asked beachgoers to avoid it. The lake algal bloom is toxic and foul-smelling, and residents of cities which get their water from Lake Tai and Lake Chao have been warned not to drink the water.